Good advice, thank you this could be a problem haha. I have tried feeding Prickly Pear and they eat it. The two Desert Tortoises I have I don't think ever turned anything down that I put on their feeding rocks. I also keep some fresh Timothy Hay laying in a pile (not the best grass but my daughter insisted her rabbits only can have this so we buy a bale at a time) and munch on it stem to flower. About a month ago I put a cuttlefish fish bone on each of their feeding rocks (i never offered it before unfortunately)and they are even eating those a little at a time now. They are walking walking vacuums. So easy to feed.
How many Prickly Pear plants should I grow?
- Thread starter innocent
- Start date
Yeah but he doesn't have two neighbors down the road that can use truckloads of the stuff!
I will cut some for you and @innocent this next week and we can figure out where to meet up. You mentioned Green Thumb here in SCV. Are you up this way? If not, do you come up to Green Thumb ever? I'm in the north end of SCV.
@innocent , I go up to Palmdaie or Acton several times a week during falconry season. I can easily meet you near any convenient off ramp. I have friends off of Escondido, Crown Valley and Santiago.
I will be coming up to Santa Clarita and or Palmdale a few times over the next few weeks for the election so depending on where you are I’d be happy to come get them.
Read this thread for an ingenious way to feed whole pads to your tortoise:
Let it be known that the jack rabbits with their tiny mouths will devour and destroy any size cactus plants, spines and all. So I don't worry about those going to my torts. When we first moved here, the previous owner had aboit a 10" cactus with long spines growing inside a ring of chicken wire. My Dad accidently ran over it with the biggest U-Haul you can get. Thinking it was done for, I removed the chicken wire. The plant grew and grew, was trimmed down and it and the cuttings grew and grew for the next 33 years. they now cover most of my front yard which is 1/3 acre. Somehow seedlings start in the back and they grow wonderfully. All the wildlife feed off of it all, and it still grows tremendously well. It appears to be harder to kill than to grow! I've planted a couple of spineless, and those initially got eaten to the ground before I put them in 1/2" wire fencing. Then the rabbits tunneled in to get to it, so now I sink the wire into the ground. The rabbits nest under the spined cactus to stay free of the coyotes, but the snakes still find their way in to get to the babies. No one goes hungry!
